Identification of buried objects in GPR using phase information extracted from transient response

A novel signal processing method aimed at identification of buried objects in dielectric media with the use of impulse ground penetrating radar is described. The method is based on extraction of phase information related to reflection of the signal of impulse radar from the object. To this end, transient response of the object of interest is localized in the A-scan data, shifted to zero distance and then transformed to the frequency domain. The average phase of obtained frequency response depends on the contrast between medium and embedded object and thus can be used for differentiating objects by their material properties. In case there are several signal peaks in the A-scan produced by other targets, those are processed further in a similar way. However, the signal components corresponding to all formerly processed peaks are to be subtracted from the full signal for correct collection of the responses of weaker reflectors. Performance of the method has been tested using both data obtained from electromagnetic simulations and A-scans of real impulse radar.